Latina/Latino Studies

Welcome

How to Use this Guide

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection is one of the premier libraries in the world focused on Latin America and Latin@ Studies. This guide points researchers to some of the best resources for general and archival research on U.S. Latin@s. Check the tabs on the left for relevant sources that can serve as starting points for any topic you are researching.

Need more assistance? Contact one of us by phone or email for research help or to set up a consultation.

Core Sources for Latin American Studies Research

Updated quarterly. Contains records for all types of material on Mexican-American topics and Chicanos. Since 1992, the Chicano Database covers material on the broader Latino experience, including Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants.

Provides access to a large compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. Includes many newspapers published bilingually in Spanish and English. Features hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including many long scattered and forgotten titles published in the 19th century.

Based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project", a national research effort directed by Professor Nicolás Kanellos.

Updated regularly. Brings together more than 100,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and drama written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latin authors working in the United States. Includes nearly 800 items (poems, novels, and plays) that have never been published before. Users will also find numerous Chicano folk tales and audio files of selected poems and plays. Currently has over 106,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and drama.

Updated daily. Searches complete text of books from selected library collections and publishers. Search works just like a regular Google search -- when book content contains a match for selected search terms, Google provides links to it in the search results. Depending on a few factors, Google displays everything from a few short excerpts to the entire book.

Each book includes an "About this book" page with basic bibliographic data like title, author, publication date, length and subject. For some books, additional information like key terms and phrases, references to the book from scholarly publications or other books, chapter titles and a list of related books.

Provides descriptions of the rich archival, manuscript, and museum collections in repositories across the state which are available to the public. Consists of the collection descriptions or "finding aids" that archives, libraries, and museums create to assist users in locating information in their collections. Consider these an extended table of contents which describe unique materials only available at the individual repositories. In most cases, the collections themselves are NOT available online. A list of participating TARO repositories is available.